The Seba library treats Multiplication in 7 passages, across 5 authors (including Abraham, Lyndy, Plato, von Franz, Marie-Louise).
multiplication the penultimate stage of the opus alchymicum, also known as the augmentation.
Abraham identifies multiplication as a technical alchemical term for the second-to-last stage of the Great Work, synonymous with augmentation, in which the stone’s power is increased.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998thesis
The Stone needs to be nourished so that it will grow in size, strength and sweetness (see multiplication).
Abraham cross-references multiplication in the context of cibation, showing that the nourishment of the stone is oriented toward its eventual multiplication in virtue and volume.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998supporting
a line is said to have the power of multiplying itself or generating its own square by advancing as far as its own length into the second dimension.
Cornford’s Timaeus commentary presents multiplication as the geometric self-generative power of number, whereby a unit extends itself dimensionally to produce higher-order forms.
, Plato’s cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997supporting
the individual forms could manifest in a temporal succession, and in fact in accordance with the sequential arrangement of the natural numbers.
Von Franz reads the Platonic demiurge’s revolving model as enacting numerical multiplication in time, grounding the individuation of psychic forms in an arithmetic substrate.
, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting
in the sphere of biological dialectics, the illogical sphere of nature and life’s forces, 1 plus 1 is usually far from remaining merely 2 for very long.
Zimmer invokes the logic of biological multiplication to illustrate how the union of opposites in the vegetative-instinctual sphere transcends arithmetic and enacts a creative transformation.
, Philosophies of India, 1951supporting
every Form is unique; it cannot be multiplied. It is not extended in space, and never leaves its own intelligible region.
Cornford’s commentary on the Timaeus establishes a crucial limit: Forms, unlike souls or material things, are by definition incapable of multiplication, anchoring the concept’s domain in the sensible and psychic rather than the ideal.
, Plato’s cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997supporting
this Davis publicity led to an influx of members, which addition, in turn, touched off the brisk multiplication of A.A. groups in Cleveland and vicinity.
Kurtz uses multiplication in the sociological sense of rapid group proliferation within Alcoholics Anonymous, providing a non-alchemical instance of the term’s applicability to transformative community expansion.
, Not God A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2010aside